Libretto by Roland Schimmelpfennig, based on the play by the same name
Commissioned by the Ensemble Modern and Oper Frankfurt
World premiere

Sung in German
Duration: c. 90 min. without interval

About the piece

The parallel worlds of locals and immigrants converge in an Asian take-away. A young man from China, looking for his sister, has no means of identification and suffers from terrible toothache. His tooth is removed – with a wrench - and lands in a Thai soup and then, in the mouth of a stewardess who lives just around the corner. And the others? A man is growing old and longs for something that nobody can give him. A woman becomes pregnant, but her husband does not want the child. Another is left by his wife. A cricket works for an ant who unfairly takes advantage of him...
Roland Schimmelpfennig’s award winning play was never intended as a »documentary«. »The Dragon makes simple use of announcements and acting things out, the aim in the work is not to create detachment – quite the opposite: Intimacy. Being able to identify with things. Allowing the audience to get as close as possible to the characters.«
Schimmelpfennig’s stage and thought worlds inspired the composer Péter Eötvös, who seeks, through his music, to enable intense communication between those taking part and the audience. His ability to create unusual sound worlds can be heard in many of his orchestral works and operas: Le Balcon/The Balcony, Love and Other Demons, Tri Sestri/The Three Sisters, Die Tragödie des Teufels/The Devil’s Tragedy, and Angels in America, which was performed with great success at Oper Frankfurt a few seasons ago.